Closed fish exclusion devices lead to significant fines and penalties
Date: Monday, 23 June 2008
A commercial fisherman’s action, in fishing for prawns near Shark Bay with illegally altered nets, has now cost him more than $197,000.

In a Perth court today, 44-year-old Richard Frederick Denton, of Nannup, pleaded guilty to breaching conditions of his managed fishery licence in August of 2006, by using nets that were not fitted with a Fish Exclusion Device (FED).

When the fisherman’s prawn trawler was intercepted in Denham Sound and boarded, by the officers from the Department of Fisheries patrol vessel Walcott, it was found that FEDs in three nets on the commercial fishing vessel had been closed off and bound with plastic tie cables.

The devices are used to assist in allowing a significant number of fish, like baby pink snapper and juveniles of other species, to escape from the nets, with only a relatively small loss of prawns through the FED.

After the discovery of the altered nets, Denton’s trawler was ordered back to port at Carnarvon, where the catch and nets were seized.

The trawler’s haul of prawns, scallops, crabs and squid on the day was sold for $52,021.60, with the funds held in trust pending the outcome of today’s case.

Those funds, along with the proceeds from the sale of the three nets involved ($12,000), a fine and court costs of $2669.20 and the additional mandatory penalty of $130,768.80 has led to a total cost of $197,459.60 for the illegal activity.

Gascoyne Region Compliance Manager Kieth Van Dongen said Fish Exclusion Devices were an important sustainability measure and the deliberate binding of them was a serious matter and today’s court outcome had reflected that.

“The FEDs help to avoid large numbers of juvenile fish being brought to the surface and dumped on the deck of the fishing trawler, so they are very important in reducing by-catch mortality and the taking of non-target species,” Mr Van Dongen said.

“The devices are relatively small anyway, but they are a significant method to help release the juvenile fish, while retaining the large majority of the prawn catch.”